Does Messaging Actually Slow Down Productivity?

While email remains an important facet of professional business communications, the instant message is of rising importance in office environments everywhere. While any one of many factors may contribute to this shift, it provides those businesses that adopt it great advantages to their internal processes, and might even aid in their cybersecurity.

Why Instant Messaging?For a better grasp on why the instant message is rising in popularity now, it helps to look at the changing face of the average employee. Workplaces are increasingly filled with members of Generation Y, who had a front-row seat to the introduction of instant messaging on a personal scale. As a result, these employees are more accustomed to quick, to-the-point, and (most crucially) rapid communications; something that email solutions aren’t always known for.

More to the business side of things, the inherent boost to productivity that instant messaging provides is hard to ignore, as are the benefits that even the typical approach to the instant message has when directly compared to email. Furthermore, because more businesses are adopting these solutions, their security has become a priority to their developers. At the rate that security is improving, instant messaging solutions could soon be as (if not more) secure than email.

This is not to say, of course, that business email is likely to be totally replaced by instant messaging anytime soon. This is to say that email will likely shift to be used more for external communications, while business messaging applications will probably be the way that internal communications are handled.

So How Does Instant Messaging Influence Productivity and Office Culture?The benefits of using a more “chat”-based interface to collaborate within an organization are by no means a new discovery. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute released in 2012 reported that, with managing email and collaboration attempts taking a respective 28 and 20 percent of an average employee’s week, a messaging platform for business use would be a huge benefit.

These conclusions have proven to be prophetic, with instant messaging and chat being used in businesses everywhere to provide the benefits promised while also promoting the development of a discussion. However, in order for these results to stay true in your business, you need to make sure that these tools are not abused. We’ve compiled a few suggestions on how to keep your company chat a place of productivity.

Establish Channels for Non-Business InterestsAs counterintuitive as it may sound, keeping communications in the workplace strictly work-related can ultimately hurt your overall productivity. However, once a conversation in one of these messaging apps deviates from a business-related topic, it can be impossible to salvage it. One way to balance this out is to establish certain conversations for business-only matters, and others for employees to bond over common interests and casual topics.

Nix Gossip from the Get-GoHowever, while a bit of casual conversation can ultimately benefit productivity in the office, the wrong kinds can just as easily eliminate it and eventually cause greater issues for the business over time. Make sure that every employee is aware that there is a zero-tolerance policy on gossip and inappropriate over-sharing. This will help you protect both your employees, and your business as a whole.

Have the Right Amount of FunAlong with the rise of instant messaging, the use of emojis and memes in communications has also increased. While they can be incredibly efficient at communicating a message, certain ones communicate things that have no place in the business environment. Furthermore, the temptation to overuse these alternatives to text can be overwhelming, and reduce a conversation to a time-wasting and distracting search to find the silliest image to share.

Disconnect If Need BeWe get it - sometimes you need to be able to work without the interruption of notifications. Don’t be afraid to turn them off for a little while to accomplish something greater.

For more ways to improve your communications, productivity, and other business processes, keep reading our blog, or reach out to us by calling 204-772-8822.

Get Updates On Our New Blog Posts!

Book your free introductory consultation now.

Happy Clients

“The Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation greatly appreciates support we receive from HUB. This past summer we undertook a big move into a new building and the employees at HUB were with us every step of the way. They efficiently set up our computer network and ensured all employees were educated and informed. With their support, the transition into the new space was seamless and we can’t thank them enough.”

Christine Schollenberg

Children's Rehabilitation Foundation

“At Prometa, we value great customer service. In our industry, our systems are integral to the success of our business. HUB has always provided a high level of customer service, and we feel at ease when we need their assistance, because they have a proven track record.”

Mike Kalic

Prometa Fund Services Inc.

“Working with legacy applications can be difficult. Hub's solutions and support has made this possible for us, while keeping our company current with our other needs.”

Chris Daley

Mid West Packaging

“We have been extremely happy customers of HUB Computer Solutions for close to 20 years. We value their dedication to responding quickly, providing high-value solutions, and contributing an expertise that helps us do the work that we do. Each and every staff member is respectful and friendly, which makes working with them a real pleasure!”

Dari Latimer

Deri Latimer Positivity Speaking

“As a small non-profit it was hard to find tech support that suited our needs and budget. We switched to HUB after a personal consultation where they actually took the time to learn our needs and offered us suggestions that were practical for our organization.”

Esther Reimer

Manitoba Beef Producers

“HUB Computers has been helping our company with networking issues for years. The staff bring years of experience and knowledge to the table and are always able to find the answers I need.”

Elise Ponask

Keewatin Tribal Council

“We switched to HUB solutions from our previous provider. We have found HUB to be proactive and very responsive. They have found ways to improve our IT while saving money and have been very quick to respond to urgent issues. We are very happy with our choice of HUB.”

Avrom Charach

Kay Four Properties Inc.

“We operate a small business and have used HUB Computer Solutions for many years. We always receive friendly, prompt and professional help from them. We have used HUB Computers personally as well and would recommend them to any small business or individual.”

Mary Wolanik

Clear Choice Window & Door

“We do a lot of our own IT work ourselves but when we hit a problem or issue that is more then we know we always turn to HUB for help. You staff is courteous professional and always get the job done quickly. Sometimes it’s a quick easy fix and other times it is a more of a major issue but what ever the issue, it gets fixed with little loss of time at our office. You have a very good company and great people. Thanks for all your help”

Greg Fast

Boretta Construction

“One of the things we like most about Hub is the service. Any email inquiry we send gets a reply confirming receipt and that is quickly followed by a detailed reply telling us when a technician will be looking into the problem.”

HUB Tech Minutes

If you need to condense data into a concise and comprehensible form, Microsoft Excel is tough to beat. This is despite the fact that your average spreadsheet isn’t exactly an eye-catcher. However, Excel provides a few native options that boost your d...

Hardware, software, malware, ransomware. These are all terms that share two things in common - you probably have heard them fairly often, and they all end the same way. This is no accident. To better understand what these programs are, let’s dig into...

Sometimes it might feel like your technology never works as you want it to. You might try to open up a software application only to find an error message that keeps you from being productive. The error doesn’t go away no matter how many times you rel...